photogaphy: Märta Thisner

In november 2017 Beauty and the Beast toured with Riksteatern i Sweden and prior to that it has been shown in various places such as MDT, Stockholm, Artcenter Buda, Kortrijk, Impulstanz, Vienna (winner of Prix Jardin d'europe 2013), Orionteatern, Stockholm, Iceland dance festival. 

Created by: Amanda Apetrea and Halla

Ólafsdóttir ///// Featuring Lisen Rosell and master of lights Chrisander Brun

With opening acts: Emma Tolander, Emma Kim Hagdahl, Jessyka Watson Galbraith and Siri Hjorton Wagner

Beauty and the Beast was aworded Prix Jardin d'europe 2013 at Impulstanz Vienna.

We ask you to forget minimalism and everything you know about good taste. In Beauty

and the Beast we say hello to a new definition of luxury; It is not about what you see- but about what you experience. Beauty and the Beast is a dance performance that celebrates rock n’ roll, freedom, dance, love, lust and fear. It is about you and us and all the love in between.

Beauty and the Beast is a contemporary dance performance that uses elements from

popular culture in the structure of a rock concert. The aim is to reach the audience

through something immediately recognizable. We want to search past and through the

clichés until they lose their original meaning and allow for the audience to project their personal experience, references and memories. The performance reaches out to provide every individual with a personal experience as well as creating a possibility for a shared feeling of unity. In Beauty and the Beast the dance is not producing signs but rather works on the level of affect. It explores how the raw power of an arena concert can produce a shared feeling between the performer and the spectator.

The image of the rock star-diva is of one that “takes no prisoners”, never asks permission and never apologizes for who they are. This is a very important aspect of the

performance; we work through imitation of star behaviour on stage in order to play with

the idea of beauty morphed with the beast. With the overload of clichés and through

physical exhaustion the notion of beauty transforms during the performance. It is in the

transformation where the unfolding of the superficiality lies. All this invokes the

proposition that anyone can embody and claim the right to become the star. Blurring the

division between the idol and the public.

Beauty and the Beast produces bodies that dare to take up space and addresses the

questions: what kind of a body do we expect to see in a dance performance and how are

we projecting politics and gender into body movements. In the media we are constantly

being asked to limit our selves; never be too much, never talk too loud, never dress too

crazy or use too much makeup. Beauty and the Beast is a show where there is far too

much of everything and where anything can happen. COME AS YOU ARE AND

DON´T LET ANYBODY TELL YOU DIFFERENTLY!

For each performance of Beauty and the Beast we invite a local artist to perform as an

opening act. In order to connect with new artists and to play with the possibility of

inventing formats for dance performances.

We consider the performance an opportunity to create a platform for people to socialize

and through opening acts, workshop and performance create a dialogue concerned with

finding different ways to create dance and think about what choreography might be. We

want the theater to be a place that you do not want to leave when the show is over. We

want to enter the experience of going to a concert and the feeling of “no tomorrow” when

you want the party to last forever.